now on bbc news, panorama. tonight, we investigate a covid death that shocked britain. belly mujinga's death sparked protests, after reports the transport worker had been spat at by a customer. the police say the man couldn't have infected her. but how could they be sure? i think the police have made a mistake here with, er, their interpretation of that evidence. we're really no better than tossing a coin. belly‘s employer says it did all it could to protect her. but could it have done more? she had a very severe form of sarcoidosis

that was affecting parts of her body that is critical to her well being. belly said to me, "motolani, i have this thing, i have this, i can't even breathe." as belly mujinga's family search for the truth, we hear calls for there to be a full inquest into her death? i feel there are sufficient doubts and conflicts around the facts of this case to justify an investigation. just to show you how victoria. belly mujinga had never known victoria station in london this quiet in the ten years

she worked there. lockdown was coming. belly was worried about coronavirus. she had serious health problems. on march 21st, four days after belly filmed herself at work, she was involved in an incident with a man on the station concourse, near the ticket office. belly‘s friend and colleague motolani was also on duty that day. she says the man was agitated and aggressive. then he came further, closer, and we said to him, "please behave yourself, go back, go back, go back. please go back." he didn't, then he came forward and coughed on us. he was coughing like an old man had no teeth.

and he said to us, "you know, i have the virus." we got more scared, we're shocked. belly was shaking, we had to run. belly went straight to the, to the reception to find a basin to watch her face. when belly went home, she told her husband lusamba what had happened. in the days that followed, belly began to feel increasingly unwell. on april 2nd, lusamba

called an ambulance. the next day, a doctor delivered the diagnosis he feared — covid. lusamba broke the news to his wife. belly photographed herself the day she was told, but wanted to spare her 11—year—old daughter ingrid, so wouldn't show her face during video calls.

on april 5th, belly mujinga, who was 47—years—old, died. belly‘s death might have stayed a private tragedy, had it not been for her union, the transport salaried staffs‘ association. motolani, who's now left victoria station and begun a constructive dismissal case, was a union rep.

i put pressure on my union. i told my union i'm not going to have it, i was actually throwing tantrums. on may 12th, five weeks after belly‘s death, the union put out a press release. it said she'd been assaulted by a man who'd deliberately coughed and spat at her and said he had the virus. the police started an investigation following press inquiries. btp have launched an investigation following the death of a railway ticket officer who died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty. and yesterday, mr speaker, this house learnt of the tragic death of belly mujinga. the fact that she was abused for doing her job is utterly appalling. after an investigation lasting 19 days, the british transport police concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime and that belly had not died as a result

of the incident. what happened at victoria station has been the subject of a police investigation and an internal inquiry carried out by belly‘s employer govia thameslink railway or gtr. the facts remain bitterly contested so we've been back over some of the evidence and taken expert opinion from doctors, scientists and lawyers. first, i wanted to understand why it was seven weeks before the police were alerted. investigations usually begin straight after an incident happens. i think the police would recognise and all prosecuting authorities that you're best attempting to gather evidence, as long as you've been informed of the potential for there to be criminality

as close to the events in question as possible. so, where there's delay there is always the risk that the evidence is not as good as it could have been if you had acted swiftly. motolani claims immediately after the incident she told managers she and belly had been assaulted by a male customer and she asked for the police to be called. she says she didn't tell them the man had said, "i have the virus", but says belly did. what words are used to describe the incident? i told the manager, "he assaulted me." i was using "he assaulted me." to me, in my own perspective, i felt the assault was more even serious. why was that? to me, in my own perspective, so i'm — as far as i'm concerned, it's — the covid word did not really bother me much as much as it bothers belly. you know?

gtr says neither belly nor any of her colleagues present at the time made a complaint of deliberate coughing or spitting or asked for the police to be called. but the company knew something had happened. we knew there had been an incident on the 215t and at the time it was reported as a coughing incident. on the 8th of april, belly‘s union wrote to gtr raising the incident, saying there was evidence a passenger had deliberately coughed in her face. gtr says the allegation of deliberate coughing prompted it to begin its own investigation, but the police were still not called. the 8th of april it was reported as a coughing incident which wouldn't have made it an assault. six weeks after the incident, we received an allegation that it was a spitting incident and at around that time btp also started their own criminal investigation. but an allegation of deliberate

coughing can be enough for the police to consider opening an assault investigation. when the police were eventually called in, they used ticket office records to trace and interview a 57—year—old man. the police reviewed cctv footage, saying it showed "a is—second interaction" between the man and railway staff. the footage hasn't been released, so we haven't seen it, but we've spoken to people who have. when he was coming at that time, so like, was quick, was aggressive to them. when he arrived, he was so close. so suddenly belly step back. he came very close to them — less than a metre, i think, came very close to them, and then suddenly bellyjust turned and start to run away.

patrick and barte are friends of belly‘s husband, lusamba. they were with him when police showed him some of the footage. the meeting with an officer was recorded. he goes past them, talks, goes, comes back, and when he comes but if it was just a cough, why had belly run away? the police recognise that something happened, but because we couldn't see it, so they could just rely on what the man told them, that maybe he sneezed or he coughed but he didn't spit.

but they recognised that something happened. the problem was the cctv footage was not clear enough. victoria is one of london's busiest stations. there are hundreds of cctv cameras keeping watch. network rail, which operates them, says only one captured footage of the incident. by the time the police started investigating, the footage, which is routinely only stored for around 28 days, had been wiped. but officers were told that six minutes,including the incident, had been saved, at the request of gtr, who'd already begun their own investigation. the police say that even after they'd had the footage enhanced it was still not clear enough to show whether a crime

had been committed. so, what were witnesses saying? motolani gave a statement in may. she told police the man had said, "you know i have the virus." another witness, also a member of station staff told the police he hadn't said that. when the british transport police announced they were closing their investigation, they said they were confident the man couldn't have infected belly. they said he'd had an antibody test four days after the incident "as part of his occupation" and it was negative, showing he'd never had the illness.

but how could they be so sure? on the 25th march, i don't believe that there were any commercially available reliable tests, certainly that were reliable enough to be used. the quality of the tests that we were using in march or were available in march were really no better than tossing a coin. a negative result didn't necessarily mean there had been no infection. a negative test can be unreliable if it has failed to detect antibodies in the patient, and that is certainly something that is observed with a number of test kits, that they are not able to detect antibodies when they are there. the nhs didn't begin offering antibody tests to all staff until may.

back in march, commercially available tests were onlyjust coming on to the market. it's difficult understanding diagnostic tests and i think the police have made a mistake here with their interpretation of that evidence, and it's important that you get professional advice, i think, on these, to actually understand what it means when you have test results. the british transport police say the test was "substantiated by the man's gp" and it "did not change the fact there was insufficient evidence" of "any criminal offences taking place". as belly‘s case was being closed, the killing of george floyd was sparking protests in the us. i felt so hopeless when i found about george floyd, i just felt like there was nothing i could do. and then i saw on the news what happened to belly.

we see people like belly every day when we're going through victoria station and she's a black woman, a normal black woman just doing herjob. naomi started posting on social media. chanting: say her name! belly mujinga! say her name! fired up by the reaction, she helped organise a rally in london. justice for belly! it was incredible. belly‘s family led the whole march with a banner, "justice for belly" with her picture.

belly‘s death was now attracting so much attention that injune, the british transport police announced it had asked the crown prosecution service to review its investigation. i've also been looking at belly‘s time at victoria station. she loved herjob, but i've discovered she wasn't always happy at work. eight weeks before she died, she'd raised a grievance against gtr, claiming discrimination and victimisation. in september 2019, belly had been suspended from work for six weeks after leaving ticket office takings on a supervisor's desk, rather than handing them to the cashier. so belly mujinga held a very responsible role with cash handling, and our policies had at that time stated that people should be suspended

if there was an incident. where there is a suspension, we try to deal with that with the investigation as soon as possible and staff are always suspended on full pay. that was resolved and there was no action taken with belly and she returned to work. but belly claimed a white colleague who'd made a similar mistake hadn't faced the same sanction. belly died before her grievance could be resolved. belly mujinga was the main breadwinner in the family.

she'd also been living with a serious illness called sarcoidosis. it's what we call an inflammatory condition, which basically means your immune system goes a bit haywire and starts attacking different parts of the body. belly‘s sarcoidosis affected her throat and lungs, making it difficult for her to breathe. in 2016, she needed treatment in hospital. she had a very severe form of sarcoidosis that was affecting a part of her body that's critical to her well—being. gtr has its own in—house medical team and occupational health knew about belly‘s sarcoidosis. belly‘s medical condition would have been on the record of our chief medical officers. because we're one of the few train operating companies that has an in—house medical team. at the time, belly‘s condition was not classed by the government as a reason for standing her down. sarcoidosis wasn't added to the government list of high—risk conditions

until after belly had died. but while belly was still at work, could gtr have done more to protect her? these were unprecedented circumstances. it's precisely the time when an employer should, i think, use that information in order to try and prevent any further, or unnecessary exposure of harm. it would help them to determine which employees should not be in front—facing key worker roles, for example, but be placed out of harm's way into more secluded roles where they're not interfacing with the general public. five days before the incident on the concourse, the government had urged vulnerable people to avoid unnecessary social contact. the government advice that anybody who was pregnant, who was over the age of 70

and was vulnerable should be stood down. we followed that advice. we went slightly further than that. gtr says on march 13th, it asked staff to fill in a questionnaire to identify any health conditions that might restrict their ability to work in public facing areas. it says belly only reported blood pressure. belly hadn't mentioned sarcoidosis, and according to gtr, she had asked occupational health to keep her condition confidential. clearly around medical issues, people worry about confidentiality, they don't always necessarily want their line manager to know if they have a confidential condition. they worry about if it affects their employability. but belly‘s managers did have some information. gtr, in its own internal investigation, published last august, acknowledged that her managers knew she had

some health conditions that meant she needed regular medical check—ups. but did they know more than that? we've discovered that gtr shared a different version of its internal investigation with her union. it revealed that her managers knew she'd had surgery on her throat some years previously, and that her hospital check—ups were connected to it. i think it arouses a degree of disquiet in me because here, there's such a contrast between those versions. so you've got one version which says it's known only to occupational health and managers couldn't be expected to know, then another version that said they knew about the throat surgery and the need for regular check—ups. on march 20th, one of belly‘s consultants wrote to her gp, saying she should be regarded as "high risk" because of the immunosuppressa nt drugs she was taking to treat her sarcoidosis.

she would be vulnerable based on the medications she was on, and she would be more at risk because she had no or little defence against viral infection, because of the medication she needed to keep the sarcoidosis at bay. on the day of the incident itself, the government was issuing guidance for people taking immunosuppressants. they should shield. gtr says it does not maintain up to date records of all medication taken by staff. but was there a need for belly to be on the concourse that day? passenger numbers were down. and we've seen the staff rosters for march 21st. belly had been due to work in the ticket office. motolani says she felt safer there. we were dealing with people from all, all, all around the world, they were talking

directly to us. belly said to me, "motolani, i have this thing, i have this, i can't even breathe, even wintertime, i'm scared of catching flu, then imagine this thing happening." gtr says all ticket office staff at victoria undertake concourse duties as part of their normal ticket selling and customer assistance role. on march 25th, four days after the incident, one of belly‘s consultants, at her request, called gtr, telling the company she should not be at work. belly was sent home. it's very unusual i think for a consultant, a hospital consultant to ring a line manager to inform them that a patient should shield. questions may arise as to why that had to be done. we did everything that we could. as soon as belly told us that

she thought she was vulnerable, or had received advice from a doctor, we stood her down and shielded her immediately. belly never went back to work again. she died 11 days later. if you know that a particular employee for example is particularly vulnerable to a certain health risk, the case law establishes that it's the... the company would have a duty to inform the employee of that risk and to take reasonable measures to prevent the damage occurring as a result of that risk. if you have the records, it seems to me you should as an employer pro—actively seek to identify the vulnerable. to put the onus upon the employee in these circumstances is something that would raise a question mark in my mind.

gtr told us had sarcoidosis been on the government's shielding list "at the time of the incident", it "would have told her to shield" as it did "with nearly 400 other colleagues." we may never know what really happened on the concourse of victoria station that day. or whether belly‘s death was connected to it. dating the actual onset of the infection in terms of the illness that that infection is causing can be troublesome, particularly on the background of somebody who may have other conditions, which may be making them feel ill in any case. i think it's important to bear in mind that it's possible that she could have been exposed to some other source of infection. following its review, the cps agreed with the police that in... but there remain important questions

about the circumstances of belly mujinga's death and how it was investigated. there's never been an inquest into her death. the barristers we've spoken to believe one might help her family in their search for the truth. i feel there are sufficient doubts and conflicts around the facts of this case to justify an investigation. it may be that the outcome of the inquest won't give them the result that they seek, but the important thing is that they have the opportunity to go through the process and be able to put questions and to some measure get answers to some of their concerns. belly is somebody that you know she is a, she is people's...

she is a foundation to happiness, reinforce me to, you know, have sunshine and, you know, she... i don't think i will ever forget belly. i don't. i will never forget belly.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: donald trump and joe biden have made rival tv appearances, with the president declining to deny online conspiracy theories involving him. i know nothing about qanon. while in philadelphia, joe biden spoke out about mr trump's handling of the coronavirus. we have a situation, we have 210- we have a situation, we have 210— plus thousand people tear deadin 210— plus thousand people tear dead in what is he doing, nothing. he's not wearing masks and so on. twitter says it's

investigating a global outage